Morrissey has written an 'open letter' to former Smiths bandmate Johnny Marr asking that he stop talking about him interviews.
In a post on his Morrissey Central website, the singer wrote: "This is not a rant or an hysterical bombast. It is a polite and calmly measured request: Would you please stop mentioning my name in your interviews?
"Would you please, instead, discuss your own career, your own unstoppable solo achievements and your own music?"
It comes after Marr gave an interview with Uncut magazine earlier this month in which said that the reason he's not 'close' with his former bandmate is because they’re 'so different'.
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Marr, who has also been a member of Modest Mouse, The Cribs and Electronic and worked with the likes of Nile Rodgers and Billie Eilish, told Uncut he was 'really close' with everyone he'd worked with 'except the obvious one'.
He added: "That isn’t that much of a surprise because we’re so different, me and Morrissey."
Seemingly in response, Morrissey's letter goes on to say: "The fact is: you don’t know me. You know nothing of my life, my intentions, my thoughts, my feelings. Yet you talk as if you were my personal psychiatrist with consistent and uninterrupted access to my instincts.
"We haven’t known each other for 35 years - which is many lifetimes ago. When we met you and I were not successful. We both helped each other become whatever it is we are today.
"Can you not just leave it at that? Must you persistently, year after year, decade after decade, blame me for everything … from the 2007 Solomon Islands tsunami to the dribble on your grandma’s chin?"
The pair formed the Smiths together in 1982 after first meeting at a Patti Smith gig at the Manchester Apollo four years earlier, and went on to release four highly influential albums which shaped guitar music for years to come.
Marr has been reluctant to talk about the band's split in 1987, or Morrissey's right-views and support for figures such as Tommy Robinson.
But it appears the guitarist's recent comments have irked the former Smith's frontman.
Morrissey writes: "You found me inspirational enough to make music with me for 6 years. If I was, as you claim, such an eyesore monster, where exactly did this leave you? Kidnapped? Mute? Chained? Abducted by cross-eyed extraterrestrials? It was YOU who played guitar on ‘Golden Lights’ - not me.
"Yes, we all know that the British press will print anything you say about me as long as it’s cruel and savage. But you’ve done all that.
"Move on. It’s as if you can’t uncross your own legs without mentioning me. Our period together was many lifetimes ago, and a lot of blood has streamed under the bridge since then.
"There comes a time when you must take responsibility for your own actions and your own career, with which I wish you good health to enjoy. Just stop using my name as click-bait.
"I have not ever attacked your solo work or your solo life, and I have openly applauded your genius during the days of ‘Louder than bombs’ and ‘Strangeways, here we come’, yet you have positioned yourself ever-ready as rent-a-quote whenever the press require an ugly slant on something I half-said during the last glacial period as the Colorado River began to carve out the Grand Canyon.
"Please stop. It is 2022, not 1982."
